Morphological AutonomyPerspectives From Romance Inflectional Morphology

Morphologists of different backgrounds disagree with respect to the degree of autonomy of the morphological component of language from syntax and semantics. A precise and objective quantification of the diachronic productivity of Romance morphomes is the piece of evidence most crucially missing from this debate. On the basis of 502 morphophonological innovations associated with the loss of stem-final consonants across 63 Romance varieties, this paper quantifies the degree of productivity of different morphomes (the N pattern is found to be the most productive one) and of morphomic templates generally (15% of novel stem alternations are found to abide by them). Although a strong attraction effect is detectable for morphomes, the numbers suggest that the morphological autonomy and longevity of stem alternations in the family might have been somewhat overstated. For an optimal account of the morphological innovations observed, reference to inherited morphomic structure, semantic structure, and to frequency of use are needed in similar proportions.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Sources and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Reflexes Of Romance Morphomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Partial paradigms of two Italian verbs with different reflexes of the L morphome Italian dire 'say'(Maiden et al, 2010) Italian fare 'do'(Maiden et al, 2010) …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Morphological autonomy and the long-term vitality of morphomes: stem-final consonant loss in Romance verbs and paradigmatic analogy

Herce

2023

“…(Baerman andCorbett 2012, from Lahaussois 2009:12) ' (de Sousa 2006:541) There is by now a substantial literature on the phenomenon (e.g. Maiden 1992;O'Neill 2011;Maiden et al 2011;Luís and Bermúdez-Otero 2016 etc.). For reasons of coverage and tradition, most of the literature on the morphome has been so far been concerned with data from Romance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphome interactions

Herce

2018

How morphological elements interact with one another is a major concern for both morphological theory and typological research. Morphemes, for example, are usually said to block each other when they are in subset-superset relations to one another. Little is known, by contrast, of how morphomes (i.e. forms with unnatural morphosyntactic distributions) interact with one another. This paper provides an initial typology of morphome interactions, based on whether their forms overlap in the paradigm or not, or whether the distribution of one constitutes a subset of the other or not. In addition, special attention will be paid to the outcome or the resolution of morphome orthogonalities. Focusing on the interaction between the L-and N-morphomes of Romance, the analogical changes related to their orthogonality are surveyed and a constraint isproposed that limits the possibilities of morphome interaction.

The natural stability of autonomous morphology: how an attraction–repulsion dynamic emerges from paradigm cell filling

Round,

Esher,

Beniamine

2024

Autonomous morphology, such as inflection class systems and paradigmatic distribution patterns, is widespread and diachronically resilient in natural language. Why this should be so has remained unclear given that autonomous morphology imposes learning costs, offers no clear benefit relative to its absence and could easily be removed by the analogical forces which are constantly reshaping it. Here we propose an explanation for the resilience of autonomous morphology, in terms of a diachronic dynamic of attraction and repulsion between morphomic categories, which emerges spontaneously from a simple paradigm cell filling process. Employing computational evolutionary models, our key innovation is to bring to light the role of ‘dissociative evidence’, i.e., evidence for inflectional distinctiveness which a rational reasoner will have access to during analogical inference. Dissociative evidence creates a repulsion dynamic which prevents morphomic classes from collapsing together entirely, i.e., undergoing complete levelling. As we probe alternative models, we reveal the limits of conditional entropy as a measure for predictability in systems that are undergoing change. Finally, we demonstrate that autonomous morphology, far from being ‘unnatural’, is rather the natural (emergent) consequence of a natural (rational) process of inference applied to inflectional systems.